fable

Halo 4 tops big 2012 for Xbox

For millions of video game fans, the name Master Chief is all they need to hear to know they're in for hours of intense game play. And for years, through iteration after iteration, the Halo franchise has kept those fans glued to their Xboxes.

This holiday season, fans will get yet another crack at the world of Spartans, the Covenant, and John-117: Halo 4.

At its annual Spring Xbox Showcase last week, Microsoft gave the video game press their first look at game play from the next version of one of the industry's all-time best-selling games. And this … Read more

E3 2011: The Microsoft exclusives

LOS ANGELES--Microsoft began its press conference with some gameplay demos of Modern Warfare 3, Tomb Raider, and Mass Effect 3. Though these titles certainly impressed, they'll be available on multiple consoles.

But at E3, it's exclusives that count, and Microsoft finally showcased a number of titles that will only be available on Xbox 360 and Kinect:

Xbox 360:

As we suspected, an intense Gears of War 3 demo delighted the crowd with Marcus Fenix battling a skyscraper-size alien. The game will be out in September.

Next we saw a teaser-trailer for the ancient Rome inspired Ryse that looks to feature Kinect implementation. There wasn't too much information here--just that it's being developed by the team behind the Crysis franchise, Crytek.… Read more

Amazingly, the Xbox 360 is 5 years old

And just like that, the Xbox 360 is five years old.

Five years ago yesterday I was one of about 2,000 people who spent 30 very cold hours inside a giant hangar in the Southern California desert celebrating the launch of this brand new video game console. The so-called "Zero Hour" event was the start of something that has helped change the industry forever.

It's hard to believe that five years has gone by so fast, but sure enough, the Xbox 360 has officially reached the age at which previous generations of video game consoles would be retired in favor of the next round. But the new Xbox was the first to hit the playing field of what quickly became known as the "next-gen" consoles: the Xbox, Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii, the latter two of which would be released in November 2006.

Amazingly, on that frigid Nov. 21, 2005, Sony's flagship console was still the PlayStation 2, and no one had yet even heard the name "Wii."

Along the way, the Xbox 360 has become a major part of Microsoft's stable of products, and has helped spawn (or enhance) some of the biggest and most important exclusive titles and accessories in video game history: the Halo, Gears of War, and Fable franchises, among many others; the Kinect motion-sensitive controller; and of course, the massively popular Xbox Live service.

But the Xbox has also had issues, most notably the infamous Red Ring of Death failures, and the resulting $1 billion warranty program Microsoft instituted to handle the resulting thousands of dead Xboxes. Many gamers also scoffed at its original behemoth power supply. … Read more

5 car video game crossovers we want to see

In light of the Jeep Wrangler making an appearance in the new Call of Duty: Black Ops, and the associated Wrangler Black Ops edition offered by Jeep, we came up with five other video game car crossovers we would like to see. We looked at the top games either available now or coming soon on GameSpot, and picked five likely candidates for a crossover deal.

 Game  Car Fallout: New Vegas Ford Shelby GT500 If we're roaming the post-apocalyptic wastelands around New Vegas, we want to do it Mad Max-style. The Shelby GT500 has the mean looks and … Read more

Fable III hands-on: Starting a revolution

Fable III is the third installment in the series from visionary creator Peter Molyneux. This latest iteration continues the story of the fictional land of Albion, taking place 50 years after the events in Fable II and 550 years after the original Fable on Xbox.

Now deep in its industrial revolution, Albion is faced with a tyrannical king who happens to be your brother. You'll seek to overthrow him by gaining enough followers to stage a revolution. How you accomplish this is the game's good or evil main gameplay component.

Jeff: Having sat down privately with Fable's lead game designer Peter Molyneux a few months before Fable III's release really helped understand where he wanted to take the franchise. Molyneux seemed frustrated with where the RPG genre had evolved and wanted Fable III to distance itself from the norm.

To Molyneux's credit, Fable III is by far the most accessible RPG we've played--so much so that at times the game doesn't even feel like one. Instead of worrying about the typical genre staples of meters and gauges, Fable III seamlessly equates leveling up to crossing through a series of gates. This separate world can be visited at any time and lets players cash in earned points to open treasure chests that represent upgrades and new abilities.

Also new in Fable III is the menu system, or lack thereof. There's actually no pause button in the game. Instead, hitting Start takes the player to a sanctuary where he or she has the option to equip weapons or switch outfits. Kudos to the development team for making this such a smooth experience--the sanctuary loads almost instantaneously.… Read more

E3 2010 trailer: Fable III

Fable III is Peter Molyneux's third tale in the epic action-adventure RPG franchise where every decision you make has an impact on your character's ultimate fate. Molyneux was on hand at Microsoft's E3 2010 press conference to briefly discuss the game and described it as "the quest to save Albion."

The title will take place five years after Fable II and will be available on October 26.

360 comes out with all major franchises firing

Besides directly taking on the Wii with Kinect, how else can Microsoft hope to compete with Sony and Nintendo--not to mention Apple--this holiday season? With its big guns, literally.

Microsoft's focus at this year's E3 was, not surprisingly, on its biggest franchises. The company's boast was that the 360 is the only place to have these experiences--which all involved gunplay--although one, Call of Duty: Black Ops, is multiplatform.

Metal Gear Solid Rising: Hideo Kojima's sword-based Metal Gear action game was shown briefly, with a heck of a lot of slicing to pieces and a requisite fruit-slicing … Read more

preGAME 03: X10 Showcase

This week on preGAME, hosts Jeff Bakalar and Mark Licea take a look back at all of the big announcements from last week's Microsoft X10 conference in San Francisco. Today's show is chock-full of debut trailers, announcements, and first look game play video of some of 2010's most anticipated Xbox 360-centric games.

But before we get into the big announcements, we'll chat about the death of local multiplayer. Long gone are the days of local four-player split screen action like Goldeneye 64. Now more than ever, game developers are overlooking the game play element that defined the "party game." Why is this upsetting trend so popular? And why do game developers choose to leave it out?

All this plus the week's headlines and releases on preGAME!

Want to be a part of our live taping? Make sure you head to http://cnet.com/live/pregame every Tuesday at 4 p.m. Eastern. If you missed any of the stories we talk about on today's preGAME, make sure to check out our links below.

Xbox Live coming to Windows Phone 7 Street Fighter IV coming to iPhone LA Noire screenshots finally surface Sony will show off motion controller at GDC Jeff's X10 wrap-up post on Crave… Read more

Microsoft X10 conference wrap-up

After a four-year hiatus, Microsoft held its X10 conference this week in San Francisco primarily to announce a bunch of release dates for some notable 360-only games due out this year. The company also flexed its exclusivity muscles by showing off some content that'll only be available on Xbox 360.

We've got all the highlights from the event below, along with all of the show's debut trailers in the video playlist to the right.

Halo: Reach: No solid release date for the game, but Halo 3: ODST owners can get a taste of the title's multiplayer … Read more